Why is this happening? Who is pissed off about it? Who is happy? What kinds of foods will we eat? Can I buy a Turkey-shaped Menorah online? These two holidays combined create a lot of questions, but the fact is, it’s the first time since the year 1888 that Thanukkah has occurred. People who are way more mathematically inclined than me, have predicted that it wont happen again for over 70,000 years!

Why this is happening:

It’s because of strange little personalities of two different calendars; The Gregorian and Jewish. The Gregorian one is the 365-day year calendar that we all know and love. The Jewish calendar was created over 2,000 years ago and has 354 days in a year. Because of this the Jewish calendar slowly (very slowly) sneaks up on the Gregorian calendar. The Jewish calendar then goes crazy and adds an entire extra month in seven of every 19 years. This year Hanukkah got an early turbo boost, and Thanksgiving came extra late because it’s always on the fourth Thursday of November. Thus the planets and the two holidays have aligned!

Who is happy or upset about it:

Double the Holidays = double the stress for many moms across the nation. Or maybe it will just be double the festivness and double the caloric intake with turkey and latkes. Some will lose and some will gain, I’m sure. The Jewish population is stoked on he extra attention, but they don’t seem to keen on the social media explosion supporting titles like “Thanukkah” (I obviously like it).

The pilgrims are of course happy about it because they get to sink their greedy teeth into more, more, more! The Indians are probably just feeling like they are people robbed from again somehow.

Foods to eat:

Sweet potato latkes – Jewish fried pancake; That sounds like a very nice blend of two holidays to me. If you’re like me, your really looking forward to eating food right now, and why not combine traditions?! Food is a very important part of culture, identity, and our well-being.

Yes! You can Buy a Turkey-shaped Menorah!

Not sure how Jewish people really feel about this, but I’m pretty culturally insensitive and I think it’s adorable. Who wouldn’t get a kick out of this! If it was a centerpiece glowing over a Thanksgiving feast!?